Archive for April, 2010

During the month of May, the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS), Baltimore Humane Society, and the Maryland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MD SPCA) will be conducting a Baltimore 500 promotion with a goal of getting 500 cats and kittens adopted. From May 1 to 31, 2010 all three participating shelters will be offering no-fee adoptions. Regular adoption procedures will apply. Adopters will get a loving companion and will have the satisfaction of knowing they have saved the life of a cat or kitten. Cats are “seasonal” which means they tend to have kittens during the late Spring and Summer. During this period shelters are inundated with cats and kittens arriving by the box loads. This is the busiest time of year for animal shelters in the Baltimore area.

Here are some great reasons to consider adopting a cat or kitten during this promotion:
· Adopters will get a loving companion for life, who has been spayed or neutered, and vaccinated for rabies.
· If you already have a cat or kitten you should consider getting it a companion. Most cats and kittens are very social and enjoy the companionship of other cats or kittens.
· Cats and kittens are more self-sufficient than dogs and better suited for households where people work longer hours.
· Studies have demonstrated that having a cat can have important health benefits for people. Cats have been demonstrated to reduce incidents of depression and to reduce your blood pressure.
· Many cats who are available for adoption have lived in a home environment and will adjust quickly to a new home.

Yesterday I volunteered at a spay and neuter clinic for feral cats run by Community Cats Maryland at BARCS. Feral cat populations are a problem in many urban areas and Baltimore is no exception. One of the reasons I first became interested in animal welfare and rescue efforts was that I was upset by the number of stray and feral cats roaming the streets in our old neighborhood. Rather than rounding up and killing the cats, several groups in the area are advocating Trap Neuter Release (TNR) programs that seek to prevent future litters while allowing existing cats to live out their lives.

The caretakers of these feral cats were responsible for trapping them before the clinic and bringing them in on Saturday. Then all day Sunday the cats went through an assembly line of being knocked out with anesthesia, spayed or neutered and any other dental or medical procedures, having their ears cleaned, their ear tip cut to indicate they had been fixed, and given vaccinations. Then each cat was placed on top of a towel on top of its cage to be monitored while the anesthesia wore off.

When I arrived I was handed a tiny kitten wrapped up in a towel. One eye had to be removed because of infection and there was a small piece of gauze sticking out at the end of the sutures. I carried the little guy around for over an hour swaddled in a towel before he started to wake up. He was there with three of his littermates: a calico, an orange tabby and a buff tabby. Once we brought out some food for them he really perked up so I let him go in the crate and eat, but the second we walked away either he or his littermates ripped the piece of gauze out! There was blood all over and we were all worried about him. The vets said that they had planned to take it out the next day but it wasn’t a big deal so I got to hold on to him for another couple of hours and hold an ice pack to his surgical site to help with the swelling. He was perfectly happy to snooze. Once he was asleep we tucked him into a small crate of his own. Later we had to give the kittens medication for their fleas and a dewormer which they of course hated but it was still pretty cute to watch them squirm

Here are some pictures of the kittens from the Community Cats Maryland facebook page:

Meanwhile I helped with the recovering bigger cats. Some of them were really huge! I changed the newspapers in the bottoms of their cages and gave everyone a bowl of mushy food mixed with water to help them rehydrate. Most of them gobbled it down but others didn’t touch it. My guess is that by this morning all the cats that were still sort of out of it from the anesthesia are going to be fully awake and pissed that they are stuck in the cages!

The Maryland Community Cats facebook page reported yesterday that “We spayed/neutered about 42 feral cats at our TNR clinic today. Assuming that half those cats were female, and assuming they would have had an average of 2 litters of 4 kittens over the next year, we prevented the birth of about 170 homeless kittens in 2010. (And if you really want to boggle your mind, think about all the kittens THOSE kittens would have grown up to have!)”

They might not be able to catch all of the cats, but the ones they did get will certainly make a difference.

_________________________

Unrelated to cats, I wanted to post a picture of one of Shyloo’s puppies available at BARCS:

BALTIMORE, MD – On Easter Sunday, a group of youths were observed throwing rocks and bricks at a pit bull puppy who was tied up in the 3700 block of Greenspring Avenue near the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School. A concerned citizen saw this taking place and approached the youths. The youths began throwing rocks and bricks at the man who was still able to rescue the dog. The dog was taken to The Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS) where she was named Christy and treated for her injuries.

There has been an outpouring of concern from the community in response to this incident and three organizations are offering a reward totaling $6,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for this crime. The Snyder Foundation for Animals is offering $1,000, The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is offering $2,500, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is offering $2,500.

This case is under active investigation by the Baltimore City Bureau of Animal Control. Anyone with information about the case is urged to contact them at 410 396-4698. All tips are confidential and all incidents are investigated. Informants must be 18 years or older to be eligible for the reward.

When Christy arrived at BARCS she had several wounds on the top of her head, her snout was very swollen with multiple wounds, there were multiple wounds around and in both nostrils, hemorrhages in both eyes, a wound on the dorsal surface of her front paw, and crusted blood in both ears, both nostrils, and in her eyes. Dr. Sherry Seibel, Veterinarian at BARCS, said that Christy is doing well, “Her symptoms are resolving. The swelling is going down and all of her wounds are healing. She is the sweetest dog, and a very forgiving soul.”

If you would like to help Christy and other animals like her, please donate to BARCS Franky Fund.

BARCS is Baltimore City’s animal shelter. It is the largest shelter in Baltimore and the surrounding area taking in over 12,000 animals each year.

The Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter, Inc. (BARCS) is a non-profit organization created in 2005. The mission of the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS) is to provide sanctuary for all animals and to promote a more humane community.